EARLY ACCESS // more buildings in procreate (Patreon)

Back to drawing buildings in Procreate! Still struggling to make them expressive and dynamic. These studies are based on a picture I took in Annecy:

For this one, I tried out a workflow where I created the basic structure and color for the building first, before proceeding with the details. I liked this ‘base version’ a lot, but felt ambivalent as soon as I started detailing it in my usual painterly way. I just felt like this way of working killed the clear sense of form and shape and turned everything blobby.

So after making this ‘painterly’ detailed version, I went back to the base version and started over from there, using a more simple and minimalistic workflow. This version has very few modifications on the base version and has a finer, more line-based approach to layering on the details. It felt a lot better while drawing it, but when I was done I just didn’t feel like there was a really significant enough difference between the two versions. And I actually preferred the painterly one, haha!

I did find the workflow of making an expressive and readable ‘base shape’ first very helpful, so that’s something I’ll be continuing to do when drawing architecture. I also tried using a perspective grid in this one which I really liked, although I started using it halfway through and I feel like the results would be better if I used it for my initial sketch.

So that’s the latest in my quest to improve my architecture drawing skills! Wish me luck in my next sketch session, haha!